Sydney Sweeney has added fuel to her ‘MAGA Barbie’ label after it was revealed her Euphoria character, Cassie Howard, is a Republican.
The actress, 28, became a political lightning rod last year when it emerged that Sydney is a registered Republican, with the star receiving praise from President Trump himself.
Meanwhile left-wing critics spoke out when she appeared in an American Eagle denim campaign with the tagline: ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes,’ claiming the ad was pro-eugenics and supported far-Right politics.
As a result, the actress was labelled as a ‘MAGA Barbie,’ despite claiming she’s ‘not a political person’.
On Monday, Sydney once again added fuel to the label as her Euphoria character Cassie appeared to declare her political affiliation.
Sydney Sweeney has reignited her ‘MAGA Barbie’ controversy as it’s revealed her Euphoria character, Cassie Howard (pictured), is a republican in new scenes
Last year, left-wing critics spoke out when she appeared in an American Eagle campaign with the tagline: ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes’, claiming it supported far-Right politics
The hit HBO series returned with episode 5, titled This Little Piggy, with Cassie sucking her toes for her OnlyFans subscribers.
As Cassie’s OnlyFans career becomes more successful, she begins appearing on various podcasts to talk about men.
She says: ‘I just feel like American men have been treated like second-class citizens.’ One podcast host asks her, ‘Why is it that women hate men these days?’
Cassie continues: ‘Well, in the past, men used to be hunters and gatherers and protectors, but now they’re being forced to walk around on their tippy toes.
‘I mean, it’s not natural. Men should be free. They should be able to speak their mind and voice their desires.’
One host asks: ‘Oh, you think they’re being too restricted by society?’
Cassie responds: ‘Yes! Like if a man today were to say that he wants a girlfriend who could cook or clean, he might as well be screaming the N-word.’
Another host off-camera tells Cassie: ‘Well, you sound like a Democrat.’
Giggling, she replies: ‘I’m not r*tarded.’
Following the scenes airing, fans took to X to point out that Sydney had adopted a full method acting technique, as the actress has previously made vague comments about the political party.
They penned: ‘Sydney Sweeney officially came out as MAGA ON Euphoria tonight’,
‘Either they wrote this to adapt to Sydney Sweeney or she was doing an Emmy-worthy method acting long con for the past two years’,
‘What if Sydney Sweeney was method acting this whole time pretending to be MAGA and doing a whole conservative grift to tease Cassie’s arc on the new season’,
‘Sydney Sweeney just playing herself on that show’,
‘I just know Sydney Sweeney & her PR died when all that maga stuff about her blew up after the jeans ad, knowing full well the script she already filmed for Cassie lmao’,
‘Sydney Sweeney took method acting too far.’
Reports then emerged in 2025 that Sydney was a registered Republican, with her receiving praise from President Trump himself
Following the Euhporia scenes airing, fans took to X to point out that Sydney had adopted a full method acting technique
Up until 2025, the Euphoria star has remained tight-lipped on her voting preference, but fans had spotted clues about her political affiliations since 2022.
This includes mentions of her ‘conservative’ relatives’, her mother’s ‘make 60 great again’ birthday party and handling a gun in an old video at a shooting range – after the jeans campaign became the subject of intense online discourse.
But in January of this year, Sydney hit back against being pigeonholed as a ‘MAGA Barbie.’
‘I’ve never been here to talk about politics. I’ve always been here to make art, so this is just not a conversation I want to be at the forefront of,’ she told Cosmopolitan magazine.
When she was asked why she refuses to straighten out the record if she feels she is being falsely portrayed, she replied: ‘I haven’t figured it out.
‘I’m not a hateful person. If I say: “That’s not true,” they’ll come at me like: “You’re just saying that to look better.”
‘There’s no winning. There’s never any winning.’
She maintained: ‘I just have to continue being who I am, because I know who I am. I can’t make everyone love me. I know what I stand for.’
Elsewhere, Sydney sparked backlash from OnlyFans creators with her ‘ridiculous’ Euphoria role.
In the new season of the HBO series, the actress’s character, Cassie, starts an account on the adult platform to help fund her lavish lifestyle.
The show presents her shift towards increasingly risky and shocking behaviours in hopes of becoming successful online.
From making content posing as a dog, dressing as a baby with pigtails, to delivering some of the most X-rated scenes in her career yet, Sydney’s character has pushed the boundaries.
So much so that viewers tuning in couldn’t help but ask how the actress herself agreed to film such content, with many calling it a ‘humiliation ritual’.
Now, real-life OnlyFans creators have also hit out at the series after feeling that the depiction has caused them to be subject to mockery due to their line of work.
Sydney also sparked backlash from OnlyFans creators with her ‘ridiculous’ Euphoria role
In the new season of the HBO series, the actress’s character, Cassie Howard, starts an account on the adult platform to help fund her lavish lifestyle
Sweeney was captured posing for a series of provocative photos for her OF account, including a graphic shot featuring ice cream dripping down her nude cleavage and her dressing up as a baby after the previous episode saw her dressed as a dog
‘There’s just a lot that’s ridiculous and cartoonish about it,’ Sydney Leathers, an OnlyFans creator since 2017, told Variety.
‘There’s so much that they have her doing that is not even on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she’s dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example.’
Indeed, OnlyFans has a strict policy which states that ‘illegal activity, including actual, claimed, or role-played: exploitation, abuse, or harm of individuals under the age of 18; incest; bestiality; necrophilia; rape or sexual assault; and any content or conduct that promotes terrorism’ is prohibited.
Meanwhile, Maitland Ward, a former sitcom actress and top creator on the site, argued that such depictions reinforce the false and damaging stigma that sex work is inherently linked to abuse or trafficking.
She told the publication: ‘In the climate we’re in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money.’
Maitland felt the show turned a serious issue into a cheap joke.
Adult creator Sophie Rain said she was left just as shocked by the scenes as other viewers.
‘I think it’s pretty cool that they’re bringing OnlyFans into the entertainment world, but the way they’re doing it is over-dramatised,’ she explained to TMZ.
‘We shouldn’t be portraying OnlyFans that way… It’s very misleading.’
OnlyFans stars Emily Mai and Taila Maddison told Daily Mail they believe that Sweeney’s portrayal as a ‘desperate’ adult star in the series has missed the mark on so many things in their industry.
‘I think the media always needs something really “out there” to catch people’s attention. They need good ratings and views. So rather than showcasing what sex work is really about, they have found really controversial niches,’ Emily said.
She added that in order to attract viewers, shows like Euphoria heavily focus on the sensationalised aspects of the adult industry.
‘It is a very small part of it. They have made it look like that’s all we all do it. Like Sydney’s character barking like a puppy. She is portrayed as this dumb girl who just does what the guys want her to do.’ Emily added.
‘Of course she is gonna dress up like a sexy little puppy, bark and be submissive.’
She added that in real life OnlyFans stars never have to comply with strange requests, and only give their followers content they feel comfortable sharing.
‘A lot of real-life content creators choose what niches, fetishes and kinks to explore, based on their own boundaries. A lot of us will say no to certain things because we are not comfortable with it, or it is not something we enjoy doing,’ she said.
‘There is no autonomy in the TV show. They are dressing us up as babies.’
Emily added that one TV myth she wanted to challenge was its frequent portrayal OnlyFans stars as ‘desperate’ – insisting that many actually found the work empowering.
‘A lot of people are uncomfortable with a woman expressing her sexuality, demanding payment. A lot of people will go on PornHub, but won’t pay a woman for her time! It’s the stigma of a woman owning her own body and getting compensated for her time,’ she said.
Fellow OnlyFans star Taila Maddison said that while she did not take particular issue with Sweeney’s work on Euphoria, she found its focus on high-profile kinks to be amusingly unrealistic.
‘I’m not upset about it. I’ve seen other stars complain, like “I can’t believe they are portraying it as just kinks It’s not what we do!” It’s not JUST what we do, but it is one of our biggest money-makers!’ Taila said.
Top OnlyFans star Annie Knight added that while she appreciated seeing her industry depicted on-screen, what she really wanted was a more accurate portrayal.
‘Anytime an OnlyFans star is portrayed, it is not accurate. There needs to be a lot more work done to make us realistic. I know they want to add drama, but you can do that without making us look dumb, or making it look like we hate the industry,’ she said.
Now, real-life OnlyFans creators have also hit out at the series after feeling that the depiction has caused them to be subject to mockery due to their line of work (pictured OnlyFans model Sophie Rain)
Following their comments, viewers took to social media to share their thoughts on the subject
Following their comments, viewers took to social media to share their thoughts on the subject.
They penned: ‘OnlyFans is the world’s largest digital pimp. They’ve successfully rebranded the sex trade as ‘content creation’ just so they can sit back and skim billions’,
‘Spoiler alert: seasons one and two aren’t realistic portrayals of high school either’,
‘There’s some parts that are wildly inaccurate (the speed and ease of making thousands of subs) but there’s a lot that is real (the panties, *MOST of the content, the hustle, the admin)’,
‘They know that TV isn’t real life, right?!’,
‘Only fans has a lot that is ridiculous and cartoonish about it. Whether it’s allowed in real life is entirely irrelevant’,
‘People can criticize the writing without disrespecting real sex workers. Fiction is fiction, but if the people actually in that industry are saying the portrayal feels exaggerated and harmful, it’s worth listening to,’
‘Is the satire show hitting too close to the target?!?’
Show creator Sam Levinson was forced to defend Sydney’s character, telling The Hollywood Reporter: ‘[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humour, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it.
‘What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion – the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.’
Speaking about her character’s OnlyFans career at the season three premiere, Sydney told Entertainment Tonight: ‘I mean, Cassie’s a crazy character.’
‘She will do anything and at all costs to be famous this season, and she makes a lot of very wild and interesting choices,’ the actress said.
Sam recently said that Sydney ‘becomes brilliant’ on set ‘if you push a little bit’.
Speaking as part of The Hollywood Reporter’s Directors in Focus event, he said: ‘What’s interesting is if you push it a little bit, she becomes brilliant…
‘You just do a few more takes, and she can reach these levels that are very honest emotionally, but also deeply funny. She’s able to anchor the scene with this kind of madness and chaos going on around her.’
Sydney also told The Independent in 2022 that she never felt pushed into doing naked scenes, and said Sam welcomed feedback.
‘There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘Okay, we don’t need it,” she added.
In 2023, Sydney told Variety that she’d asked Sam to amp up Cassie’s mania: ‘Give me more. I’m going to show you what I have. There’s so much to this girl.’
The director previously defended the explicit nature of his work, noting during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival: ‘We live in a very sexualized world. The influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people.’
Euphoria airs at 9pm (ET/PT) on HBO on Sundays. In the UK, the series airs at 2am and 9pm on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and streams on HBO Max and Sky Go/NOW
